It’s never a bad thing when your goalies are performing well. It can be a bad thing when you constantly need your goalies to perform well. Through the first nine games of their 2024-25 season, that’s the situation the Detroit Red Wings find themselves in.
Through those nine games, the Red Wings have primarily relied on Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot to guard their net, with Ville Husso starting the season opener before being banished to the American Hockey League just days later. While Lyon and Talbot have both been good in their four starts, they have had been climbing an uphill battle due to Detroit’s overall underwhelming defensive play.
That is a trend that simply is not sustainable. If the Red Wings are going to take a meaningful step forward this season, they need to do a better job of helping out their goaltenders.
Red Wings’ Goalies Under Siege
The discussion of how much heavy lifting the Red Wings’ goalies are doing starts with the fact that the players in front of them are allowing a high amount of shots-against while also generating very little offense at the other end. The Red Wings currently rank last in the NHL in shots-for at 24.8 per game. The rank 31st in the league in shots-against at 34.9. In other words, they typically allow 10 more shots than they take – and if you’ve been watching the games this season, 10 probably seems lower than the games have felt.
Related: The Truth Behind the Red Wings’ Shot Volume Disparity
The Red Wings are routinely under siege in their own zone. They’ve utilized a “bend, don’t break” style of defense to begin this season that produces the results we’re seeing. They have been content to be on the wrong end of shot totals, opting instead to prioritize quality chances in a “punch, counterpunch” offense. This strategy is mostly effective when Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson are on the ice together, but the Red Wings are often fighting for their lives when any other defensemen are on the ice.
Based on the early results, this style of play will yield about as many wins as losses – and that’s assuming the Red Wings continue to receive stellar goaltending from Lyon and Talbot.
Lyon & Talbot Emerge as Early MVPs
With a 2.05 goals-against average (GAA) and a .940 save-percentage (SV%), Lyon has been stellar in goal for the Red Wings. In his second season in Detroit, the soon-to-be 32-year-old endeared himself to Red Wings fans last season as he ascended the organization’s depth chart in goal. He played a career-high 44 games and cemented his status as an NHL goaltender – though it was painfully obvious at times that the workload was a bit too much for him.
Entering this season, there were questions about Lyon’s status on the team. The Red Wings signed Talbot in free agency, and Husso was expected to challenge for the starting role he lost last season. Though the 2024-25 season is still young, Lyon has quickly reclaimed his role as a regular in Detroit’s crease. As of this writing, Lyon’s .940 SV% ranks third in the NHL among goalies to play at least four games this season, while his 2.05 GAA ranks fifth.
Talbot, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same flashy stats that Lyon does, but Talbot has matched Lyon’s output in wins (two) and shutouts (one). Talbot’s wealth of experience in the NHL (491 regular season games played) suggests that the Red Wings should be able to rely on him to spell Lyon more frequently and effectively than Husso and James Reimer were able to last season. Since the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, Talbot has a quality-start percentage of .593, a rate that is better than any Red Wings goaltender in that same timeframe.
Among goalies to play in four or more games this season, Talbot ranks eighth in the league in goals saved above expected (3.3), while Lyon ranks sixth with a rate of 5.0 (numbers per Moneypuck). Combined, Talbot and Lyon have prevented an extra eight goals this season, and that has made a huge difference for the Red Wings considering they’re already averaging a little over three goals-against per game. In short, they have been able to fall back on their “bend, don’t break” style because their goalies are making sure things don’t break.
Help Your Goalie!
The Red Wings had two goals entering this season: secure a playoff spot and improve their overall defensive play. Last season, they averaged 32.4 shots against while averaging 28.9 shots-for. In other words, their shot rates have taken a hit to start this season. Even though the season is still young, the Red Wings will want to reverse this trend quickly because as good as Lyon and Talbot have been, relying on your goalie to steal a win night-in and night-out is only a viable strategy when you have an elite goaltender like Connor Hellebuyck or Igor Shesterkin.
Improving their defensive play was always going to be the key to the Red Wings’ 2024-25 season. But if they don’t want their two goalies to burn out already, they’ll need to accomplish that goal sooner rather than later. What they’re doing right now simply is not sustainable.
